Moto Spare Partner

Motorcycles, mopeds and scooters

Motofun was established in 2004 as an initiative by Robbie Leerkes. From a very young age, he was enthusiastic about anything and everything with wheels or an engine. Over the years, his hobby and passion for cars, tractors, but above all, mopeds got out of hand and grew into a business with nine employees selling motorcycles, mopeds and scooters. Their house specialities are European – mainly Italian – and Japanese motorcycles less than a decade old for recreational and daily use and motorcycles dating from the 1950s to the 1990s for restoration or collections. The motorcycles are purchased and sold throughout Europe.

Spare parts shop

In many cases, something small had to be repaired to the moped before it could be sold on. The problem was often the availability of parts, which were often unavailable, costly, or had long lead times. Robbie decided to take matters into his own hands. He started setting up his own spare parts shop for his favourite brand Aprilia. In the early years, it wasn’t unusual to purchase a moped that had been standing under an olive tree for 10 years simply for the engine. The other spare parts were then sold on. Moreover, leftover stocks were often purchased, and purchasing channels for original new components from Italy were tapped.

Aprilia parts

In 2005, the first version of the aprilia-parts.nl website came online, a static site with some brief information about a few 50cc manual-transmission scooters. This has developed over the years into a full-service webshop with a vast assortment of parts, most of them with images, in the shop. Leerkes: ‘Successfully running an international website is an art in itself. Thankfully, we eventually found professional and creative partners and employees who have developed the right software programmes and websites to support our business. Since then, we have been receiving orders from across the globe. This varies from Aprilia fans from next door, so to speak, to purchasers from Nicaragua. Most items are sold in Europe, with Germany, Spain, Italy and France being our main markets.’ They export their products to over 40 countries.

After the success of their website, Aprilia-parts.nl, MotoSparePartner and Partsrepublik were established. Both sites are geared towards spare parts sales for Japanese and European (Piaggio/Aprilia/Ducati) brands. The MotoSpareParts site has many new features that ensure quick navigation and convenient links to the shipping, warehousing and accounting systems. The webshop currently has over 500,000 (!) spare parts available for sale online.

Online sales are skyrocketing thanks to the webshop’s professionalisation and the growth of the e-commerce market in general. Several brands and models are also being revived, and the spare parts market benefits from this.